Family stunned at earlier parole date for teen's killer

Bitter tears flowed in court Tuesday when a mother and father learned that the man who stabbed their 16-year-old son to death on Father’s Day in 2007 will now become eligible for parole at an earlier date.

“The pain is still so deep and raw ... it doesn’t go away,” mom Liz Hoage told a sentencing hearing as she wiped away tears.

Seven years ago, Joseph Nicholson, of Barrie, was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing her son, Joey Tanner, of Hamilton, three times in the back in June 2007 and for the attempted murder of his friend, Jeremy Rodgers, 17, of Alliston, who suffered a knife wound to the chest and almost died in the same attack.

The jury, which convicted Nicholson, spent five days deliberating before rendering a verdict of first-degree murder which carries a mandatory life sentence with no parole for 25 years.

However, the Ontario Court of Appeal recently shot down the verdict and ordered Nicholson to be sentenced for second-degree murder instead, stating the trial judge did not adequately instruct the jury. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence with no parole for a period of 10 to 25 years.

“These were vicious, violent, stab wounds,” said Crown attorney Ray Williams, who is asking for Nicholson’s new parole eligibility to be set at 16 years.

Tanner and his teenage buddies had been drinking and snorting cocaine as they lingered outside a Barrie apartment building and taunted the young men inside to come out and fight. Inside the apartment, where there was no food in the cupboards, a teenaged single mom on welfare drank with her friends and passed around a platter of cocaine with a straw.

With a flick knife in his hand, Nicholson looked out the window and said “Let’s go,” then “bull rushed” out the door toward his victims, who only expected a fist fight.

Within seconds he jabbed his victims with such force his knife penetrated bone, lung, liver and spleen.

As he lay yelping in pain on the ground, dying, blood spilling from his wounds, Tanner cried out for his mom.

Nicholson later smirked and told his friends, “I guess I got a body under my belt now,” court heard.

Williams noted the killer has a criminal record for violent offences and while in prison was caught with a shank and has been in multiple fights. “He is a tornado of violence,” Williams said.

Court heard how Nicholson was passed around to foster homes and that his own mother used to overdose him with Ritalin medication when he was a toddler so she wouldn’t have to deal with him.

In court, Joey’s father, Bill Tanner, suddenly rose, jabbed a finger at Nicholson in the prisoner’s box and yelled: “You look me up when you get out, buddy.” He then rushed out of court.

Nicholson stood and apologized to the grieving mother and asked the judge for a chance.

“Your son did not deserve to die,” he said. “I’m sorry ... I want to rehabilitate myself.”

Outside of court, the family said the Court of Appeal decision has caused them to rehash the pain.

“There are more rights for the killers than for the victims,” said the mother.